New warning on Indonesia travel

Police say a hotel bombing was likely the work of Jemaah Islamiah

The Australian Government has again urged its citizens to postpone non-essential trips to Indonesia because of the risk of terrorist attacks.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said there was particular concern about the risk to so-called "soft" targets like hotels, following last week's suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

"Yesterday evening we got some additional information in relation to possible attacks on international hotels in Jakarta and also shopping centres that are used by Westerners," he said.

He was speaking as Indonesian officials warned of the threat of more bombings.

Indonesian police chief Dai Bachtiar said: "I warn all people in Jakarta that there might be another attack".

Security has been stepped up in the capital since the Marriott bombing, which killed 12 people, but the government is now looking at further measures.

The country's Security Minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said he would chair a meeting on Thursday to see whether existing legislation was adequate to deal with the threat posed by terrorism.

There has been speculation that the government was thinking of introducing an internal security act similar to the kind of laws which exist in Singapore and Malaysia. Civil liberties campaigners have warned against such a move, which could allow police to hold suspects indefinitely without charge.

Targets

The Marriott attack has been linked to the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), which has also been accused of carrying out last year's Bali bombings.

Indonesian authorities say they are worried about the possibility of further attacks around Indonesia's national day on 17 August, or to coincide with several high-profile trials of suspected JI members.

Prosecutors this week called for a 15-year jail sentence for the Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, believed to be the organisation's spiritual leader.

He has been charged with treason related to his alleged attempts to overthrow the government, as well as for allegedly approving church bombings that killed 19 people in the year 2000.

JI, which was formed in the mid-1980s, has the principal goal of establishing a unified South East Asian Islamic state stretching from southern Thailand, through the Malay Peninsula, including Singapore and across the Indonesian archipelago, and into the southern Philippines.